Saturday, 18 October 2008

News Round-Up

Legends of the Seeker is a new TV series produced by Sam Raimi and is based on Terry Goodkind's hilariously awful Sword of Truth series of novels. A ten-minute preview can be found here. It could still be entertaining, but between tons of unnecessary slow-motion shots and rather bland performances from the two leads, it doesn't look good so far.

StarCraft 2, which barring a new GTA will almost certainly be the biggest-selling game of 2009, has been unexpectedly split in three. Blizzard had determined that to tell their epic story properly would require well over 90 single-player missions. After debating how best to handle it, they decided to split the game and focus each title on one of the three core races. The first title will be subtitled Wings of Liberty and focus on the Terrans. The player will take on the role of Jim Raynor four years after the events of Brood War. A Protoss mini-campaign will also be included. The two expansions will be entitled Heart of the Swarm (focusing on the Zerg and Kerrigan) and Legacy of the Void (concentrating on the Protoss and Zeratul). Blizzard hopes to release them at roughly one-year intervals. The first release will include the full multiplayer component (including all three races), but the second and third games will add new maps and possibly new units to the experience. The announcement has had a mixed reaction from fans, to say the least. Meanwhile, Valve have announced that they will be issuing some news on Half-Life 2: Episode 3 in the next few months. The game is not expected until late 2009 or early 2010.

Orbit have tentatively scheduled the final Wheel of Time novel, A Memory of Light, for 1 October 2009. This date is only preliminary at the moment, but Brandon Sanderson has confirmed that it is the date he and his editors are aiming for.

The Sci-Fi Channel has confirmed that Battlestar Galactica will return to TV screens on Friday, 16 January 2009. Assuming no breaks, the double-length series finale will air on 20 March. No word on Lost's returning date for its fifth and penultimate season, but it will likely be around the same time (and shooting has been underway in Hawaii for the past two and a half months).